https://www.defensenews.com/air/2022...r-force-sales/
L3Harris, Embraer team up on KC-390 tanker, eye US Air Force sales
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — L3Harris,
one of the world’s 10 largest defense companies, and Embraer said they’ll work together to create an “agile tanker” based on
the Brazilian aerospace company’s KC-390 Millennium, with the aim of selling to the U.S. Air Force.
In a statement ahead of the Air Force Association’s Air Space & Cyber conference that starts today in National Harbor, Maryland, the companies said they agreed to add boom refueling capabilities and modernized communications equipment to the KC-390′s in support Joint All Domain Command and Control, or JADC2, requirements.
The update will also include systems to sustain operations in contested areas, they said.
L3Harris and Embraer said the enhanced KC-390 would be able to support the
Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment concept of establishing a dispersed network throughout a region to lessen reliance on centralized air bases vulnerable to single attacks.
“U.S. Air Force strategic planners have stated agile combat employment will require refueling platforms optimized to support a disaggregated approach to air dominance in contested logistics environments,” said L3Harris CEO Christopher Kubasik, in the statement. “Collaborating with Embraer to develop and integrate new capabilities to the multi-mission KC-390 provides a cost-effective, fast-to-field solution that embodies our trusted disruptor approach.”…..